Ever since my last post I have been on and off obsessing over the fact that I stated ever so boldly that "Group Practice is my MOST FAVORITE THING!!!", because the small but persistent voice in the back of my mind cannot stop worrying over the "but what about wool?, what about the yarn? what about the knitting? what about all of the gorgeous fiber being grown, milled, dyed and then lovingly held and visioned up into something wonderful???"

The truth is that I have a number of Most Favorite Things. But they all have a common thread, at least for me they do. My favorite things to dream, think, engage, and work within, all have embedded within them the spark of creativity. They share an impulse to create, to bring something before unseen into the realm of the manifest.

Even yoga. Especially yoga. The poses for me are encoded with my creative desire. To me they are these perfectly exquisite living art forms that move and breathe and shift and grow and evolve. They have always been this to me. Putting together a sequence is also an essentially creative process for me. It begins with a particular mood or feeling that I am inspired by and then I begin to pull the postures together that inform and support that feeling. It is no less of a creative act to me than looking at color, texture and shape of fiber and beginning to vision that into form. Feeling is everything. Mood is everything.

Part of what I have always loved the most about asana practice is that it moves me directly into my creative self. My breath and my body, my movement and my stillness are the means by which I gain access to my vast center. The part of me that is unlimited, unbounded, full of potential. For the first time in what feels like many years, I have been practicing in such a way that I have been affecting lasting change and deep opening in my physical body. I am feeling deeply connected to and inspired by the increased mobility, strength and health of my whole body, but especially my spine. I have recently been feeling like the depth that I am finding in the postures is actually guided by an impulse from my spine. Like it is speaking to me with full longing for greater depth- from a place of increased freedom, devoid of agenda or prerogative. As I move into my 20th year of practice, this is so incredibly profound to me.

Of course, the more that I connect to a sense of freedom and wellbeing, the morse desire I have to vision, to create. I have 3 active projects on needles right now, which actually feels light for me, and probably 5 more ideas in the chute. It doesn't feel stressful, it feels thrilling. And those are just craft projects. I have a number of other creative longings taking root inside of me as well. So, I guess, as ever, the point is that there is no limit. There is no end. I can love MANY different ways of expressing myself. The most important thing to me perhaps is simply that I keep going, that I enjoy the periods of abundance and also persevere during the times when inspiration is dry and hollow. It will circle back around. It always does.

PRACTICE

I like to write. Historically, in fits and starts. More and more as of late, because it’s a practice, after all. I am interested in whatever helps me to engage in a life of practice and if this works, so be it. Maybe I am just using this space as another opportunity to hold myself accountable to the path. I might write about yoga. I'll probably write a lot about my kids and what insights arise in my day to day of being their mother. And I'll reflect on my own process, in one of the many domains that I find myself traversing: woman, mama, partner, student, friend, daughter, sister, teacher. I also want to take and post pictures here that are meaningful to me. Images have often made more sense to me than words anyway. My guess it that it will all circle back around to the yoga in the end. It generally does.